Jinjoon Lee

Depth of Time

Jinjoon Lee’s video work Depth of Time explores how traumatic collective memory can be explored and explained by visual art, through the concept of ‘the thickness of time’ as articulated through ‘the eye of an angel’ in Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire. The work presents a vertical representation of time, suggesting a temporal formation in which the past is connected to the present. Through this formation Lee explores the idea of collective memory and the cumulative consequences of disaster. Lee’s acoustic animations derive from footage from international conflicts and crises. Depth of Time builds on Lee’s previous works of video collages combining footage from scenes of conflict, where natural and manmade events have marked a landscape and location indefinitely. These scenes are the basis for Lee’s multi-layered exploration of the alienation of collective memory as an element of history and the destabilising role of technologies in a work that invites the audience into the anatomy of a damaged dream.